Don't you just hate it when that drop-dead gorgeous 65/66 Mustang of yours won't start? Or when you turn on the radio and the turn signals start flashing? If you have any questions that you think I might be able to help you with, or, if I have posted something that still doesn't seem to be as clear as it could be, please feel free to ask.

Hello

There is a very large class of people that own 65/66 Mustangs that, as far as I can tell, anyway, have been, for the most part, ignored entirely. They don't really want that 100 pt. show car that is so nice and was soooo expensive that they're afraid to drive it, they also don't want to make their car capable of achieving warp factor three. They just want this car that they dearly love to be able to cruise around smoothly and reliably, without having it dump them out on the side of the road or have it start making weird noises or belching out big clouds of funky-smelling smoke. And I think, truth be told, that this is by far the largest class of Mustang owners. They take their car to some technician when what they actually need is a mechanic, and this, frequently, does not work out very well at all for the owner. They don't want to re-engineer the entire car, they just want someone to fix what broke. These are the people that I am trying help out with this blog. Some problems require a little bit of back and forth, as in, "Try this." "I tried that and it didn't change anything."" Oh. well, you probably need to try that." " I tried that and it helped, but it still isn't quite right." "Now you need to try this...." If you go to http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ and then go to the classics forums, you will be able to do that with a pretty hefty gathering of some very knowledgeable people that also happen to be very friendly. None of that ridiculous one-upmanship, no flaming or abuse, none of that stuff. Just good, solid advice from people that know what they are talking about.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Door window regulator assembly

Are you tired of having to lift up on the back of the window in order to roll the window down? This first picture is what your window would look like rolled down inside the door if you car had the rare invisible door option. How your window regulator mechanism works is the two upper arms of the regulator scissors are attached to the track on the lower part of the window frame and the third, lower arm is attached to a short piece of that same frame stock that is held onto the inside part of the door itself with two bolts. When you turn the window crank, the other end of the piece that the window crank handle is attached to has gear teeth, which mesh with the saw-blade looking part of that big flat piece on the regulator that has the big watch spring thingy on it. The spring is designed to help lift the window and apply a bit of resistance to lowering the window, so that it takes about the same amount of force to lower it as it does to raise it, and to hold the window up. Without the push from that spring, the window would just drop down into the door. As that big flat piece rotates around, it pushes or pulls on the regulator arm, which , in turn, pushes or pulls on the regulator scissors. The scissors bracket is held to the door with three bolts. The black part of the scissors work like a bell crank and push the window up or pull it down when the regulator arm moves. The next two pictures show how the regulator arm is attached to the scissors. There is a little post on the scissors and a hole in the end of the regulator arm. The post goes through the hole and then a clip is installed to hold them together.

If you have to lift up on the back of the window to lower the window, or it acts like one end of the window is trying to outrun the other, what has probably happened is that one of the scissors arms has popped loose from the roller that holds it into the track. The fourth picture here is one of the scissors arms with the roller attached to it. The next picture is of the roller itself and the clip that holds it onto the scissors. You just place the roller onto the scissors arm and install the clip and that holds the roller on. There is a groove in the roller that holds it onto the track.

To replace the window regulator you have the window in the up position, stick something like a piece of wood underneath the window to hold it up, unhook the clip from the end of the scissors , pop the regulator arm loose, remove the four bolts that hold the regulator onto the door and remove the regulator from the door. To install the new regulator, just do what you just did backwards. Don't lose one of the bolts that hold the regulator on. They're really short like that for a reason. It's so that the saw blade piece of the regulator doesn't hit them and get jammed up on the way by.

To replace the scissors, you again have the window all the way up with a piece of wood under it to hold it there, remove the clip and pop the regulator arm loose from the scissors, remove the clips from the three rollers, pull the scissors arms out of the rollers, remove the three bolts holding the scissors bracket to the car, and remove the scissors from the door. Again, installation of the new one is do what you just did backwards.

17 comments:

Hey Veronica, you directed me here from AFM, and your posts here are extremely insightful. I now know how the whole window assembly works. However I have a problem reinstalling the components. I fixed my original problem by placing the window on the tracks, the scissors, now I cannot get the spring in position to screw in. I bolted on the triangular piece the connects to the lower scissor and the door shell. but now, I cannot for the life of me, get the spring and the saw thing to the hole to bolt on and connect the window crank. Any suggestions, would be great help.

It is a tight squeeze to get the regulator back into position so you can bolt it back down. You will probably have better luck if you first, take the three bolts out of the triangular piece, bulldog the regulator back into position, attach the four bolts, and then by turning the window crank, position the triangular piece correctly and put the three bolts into it. The regulator mechanism itself has to kind of approach from the bottom to follow the indentations in the door to get back up where it needs to be. Good luck.

I found it easier to put the clips in the upper 2 rollers and place them in the upper track first. Then install the scissors with the lower roller clipped in and placed in its track. Then attach the scissors to the crank arm with the clip (you can lift up the arm and do this through the square opening in the door). Now, the upper arms can be lifted and each pushed onto its roller. The arm pin will expand the clip and it will snap it, no need to expand the clip. Keep your eye on the lower roller so it doesn't untrack. Once this is done, turning the crank about a turn or so will bring the 3 bolt holes in the triangular plate in alignment with the door. (Not sure if this was typical or if I got lucky on that one).

Yup, that will also work. You can crank the window handle around to line up the holes. It would normally take a little more than one full crank, but, the concept is sound. It will roll around and line up.

Hey Veronica, my 66 right hand side door can not close when the window is fully wound up due to what I think it is the window alignment as the door alignment appears ok. I believe the window possibly needs to be pushed forward closer to the front of the door when winding up. Is there any adjust in the winding mechanism I can adjust.

There isn't any adjustment in the regulator mechanism that rolls the window up and down. Where exactly is the window hitting? If the back of the window is hitting the front of the quarter window, that can probably be corrected by adjusting the stop on the quarter window. The quarter window needs to not go up quite so far.

Hey Veronica! I'm trying to adjust my Windows. When I roll it up, the bottom of the window comes out of the front track. The back of the window is also taller than the front when I roll it up, and the wing window doesnt sit flush with the door (it is bent out away from the car) even when I have everything as loose as I can. What can I do?

Hi, Braydn. It sounds like you have a couple of things going on with your car. The way that the door window is sitting goofy would just about have to be a window regulator issue of some sort. It could be that one of the arms of the regulator has popped loose from the roller, or, something is actually wrong with the arm itself. But, my first guess would be the roller, which is an extremely cheap part and is very easy to replace.

The wing window sounds like it just needs to be adjusted with the jack screws which are part of what holds it onto the car.

hey veronica, i just installed aftermarket power windows in my 67 mustang coupe and now when the windows are all the way up the back corner glass hits the rear back glass so i can't close the door or if i close the door and and roll them up i can't open the door. before with the manual windows it roll up and down and never hit. i didn't loosen the wing bolts only the regulator bolts. any ideas what is different now that i put power window regulator in? everything bolted in where the factory regulator went. i did try adjusting the bolts in back by the latch but didn't seem to make a difference. i hope i don't have to put back the manual one because it's pretty cool with the power windows. thanks for any info,robert

Hi Robert.Let me start by saying that I have never installed a power window regulator in an old Mustang, nor have I have worked on a car that someone else had done that to, so, take what I say for whatever it's worth, which, at the end of the day, isn't much. With that having been said, it sounds the new regulator is pushing more on the front than the back, so, maybe, rotating the regulator assembly some might correct that. Hope that helps.

I am working on the passenger side front window regulator on my 66 Mustang. I have the window in the up position. I have disengaged the regulator from the scissor extension. I have removed the extension from the door through the hole in the lower rear of the door panel. I thought that you could remove the regulator using the same hole in the back of the door. However I can't seem to get the regulator out.

Is there a trick or do I just have to keep finagling it out it until slides back to the rear?

I can't remove the window regulator from the passenger door of my 66 mustang. I have the window up. The scissor extension removed. I thought I could drop the regulator to the bottom of the door and slide it to the rear and remove it through the same opening as I used to remove the scissor extension. Am I doing something wrong? It seems as if the regulator is getting stuck on something as I try to slide it the rear.

Hi, Jim. It doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. It is a tight squeeze getting the regulator out, but, once you manage to wiggle it around to where the window crank shaft is clear without the back of the regulator jammed against something, it will come out of that same hole that you pulled the scissors through. It's just another one of those tasks that turns out to be a lot more annoying than you thought it would be. Sorry it took so long to get back with you on this, btw. I just got a new computer for my birthday and am in the process of changing it from 'A Computer' into 'My Computer'.

Hello, I have a 1965 mustang fastback.My issue: when I roll up the window the front of the window moves forward slightly 1/8 of an inch and the the stainless trim on the window it self grinds against the frame of the vent window while rolling up.When the window is rolled down the window moves/shifts slightly back and the window trim stainless does not touch the vent window Frame. I have replaced the window regulator and I have also tried moving the vent window forward and aft but nothing seems to work. My nexg step is to replace the actual black scissor assembly. Any ideas thanks.